Orwell (Surveillance System)
This page contains major spoliers for Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You and Orwell: Ignorance is Strength. Orwell (codenamed Demiurge) is a powerful, covert surveillance system, used by the nation to perform deep surveillance of suspected terrorist threats. Orwell began its first live test case on April 12, 2017, investigating the Bonton Bombings case. History Design Orwell is designed to be used by a team of 2 persons for each case: an Adviser and an Investigator. The investigator's role is to curate websites, feeds, social media, phone calls, images, chats, emails, notes, calendars, browser histories, private files, GPS locations, contacts and other sources in order to find and upload pertinent, accurate information about a Target Person so that Advisers can construct a picture about the person's life, behaviors, interests, personality, psychological profile and whereabouts at the time of the incident in question, and then act on this data to solve the case and apprehend all those responsible for crimes. Orwell's design is heavily influence by the Orwell Ethical Codex, which, among other things, mandates the separation of powers between the investigative and executive branches of the system. There are three main components of Orwell. Backend The core part of Orwell is the backend server that is hosted in secure datacenters within The Nation. This backend is networked with almost all technology in the nation, including surveillance cameras, government and corporate websites, chat and telephone applications, computer and mobile phone and social media. This backend handles the main processing functions of the system, cross-referencing datachunks, detecting conflicts, searching for documents, monitoring communications channels and accessing remote systems and databases. It is shown in the second game, that processing datachunks takes approximately 10 minutes to complete. Orwell is also capable of breaking any known encryption (with the exception of encryption protocols used by The Nation itself) instantly, and unknown or homemade encryption protocols are cracked in seconds. A hidden subroutine within Orwell is tasked with monitoring and reviewing the performance and choices of the investigator while he/she is on a case. As Orwell was still in its test phase, at the time of the first game, the backend has been shown to contain bugs and security vulnerabilities This is shown when Initiate hacked Orwell (on behalf of Harrison), and when Orwell triggered security warnings in accounts and computers that it was monitoring (such as Harrison's bank account and Nina's computer). These were later fixed. Orwell also has a backdoor IP address, installed by Abraham Goldfels that allows anyone who accesses it to have complete and total control of the entire system. The special build of Orwell, used by agents of The Office was also networked with artificial social media personas, that could disseminate any information or propaganda that The Office wished to spread. Using the influencer is shown to take 1 hour to use, and during this time, the Profiler is unavailable. This version of Orwell also allowed investigators to insert information about a target person directly into websites and software that it has access to. Adviser Interface While not seen in game, the Adviser Interface forms a key part of Orwell. It is from here that the Adviser can review the information the Investigator has submitted, and execute actions based on this information. They can deploy armed intervention teams to apprehend or eliminate Target Persons, freeze bank accounts and credit cards, interrogate Target Persons (after arresting them) and other things. Only an adviser can select a citizen as a Target Person and unlock the Reader, Listener, and Insider. In the Orwell build used by The Office, only the adviser may unlock the Influencer and set the thesis and antitheses to be disseminated. The adviser can communicate with his Investigator through a one way channel. The only way for an investigator to communicate with the Adviser is through the data he/she submits, as mandated by the Orwell Ethical Codex. This is to prevent the Investigator from swaying the opinions of the Adviser, and to ensure that the process is as objective as possible. However, as the test case shows, this can create issues as stripping the data of all context, can result in grave misunderstandings. The adviser is required by protocol to act upon any data submitted by the Investigator. Investigator Interface The Investigator interface is the second key component of Orwell. It is a specialized operating system (known as OrwellOS), running in a secure virtual machine, that is installed on the investigator's computer, allowing him/her to remotely access Orwell from outside The Nation. Through this interface, the Investigator can access websites, phone calls transcripts, chat messages, databases, online accounts, and remote computers and phones, find information pertinent to a case, and upload it to Orwell. Uploading datachunks cannot be undone. The interface consists of 5 parts: The Overview This can be accessed by clicking on the Orwell Logo in the top left corner, or on the InfoBar. On this screen, the date and time, current weather, and current objectives can be seen. The interface settings can also be configured here. Quotes are also shown here, though most of them seem to be propoganda of The Nation, aimed at reinforcing loyalty and justifying surveillance and the other extreme measures The Nation sometimes takes The InfoBar This is the bar at the top of the main screen. It contains the Orwell Logo on the left, the time and date, the communications bar, and the tabs for the Reader, Listener, Insider, and in the second game, the Influencer. Clicking on the Orwell Logo will bring up the Overview. The communications bar receives and displays messages from the Adviser. When this happens, the rest of the interface is dimmed until the message is dismissed. The Reader, Listener, Insider and Influencer button can be clicked on to access their respective functions. However, these functions must be unlocked before being able to access them. The logout button is also displayed on the top right at the end of the day, when the Adviser dismisses the Investigator. The logout button is also enabled automatically, if no Adviser is present (as seen when Symes abandoned his station to check on his family after he was doxxed). Logging out will discard all unprocessed datachunks. The Profiler This takes up the left half of the screen. Datachunks can be dragged here to be uploaded to Orwell. The investigator. can also review the information submitted to and processed by Orwell, view the overall pinboard of all Target Persons and persons related to them, and select a different Target Person for Orwell to focus on. Presumably, the Adviser interface has its own Profiler, through which Advisers would view information uploaded by the Investigator. The Orwell build used by The Office, allows investigators to take information from the profiler, and upload it to sites and devices within the Reader, Listener, and the Insider. The Reader This, along with the other 4 sections below, take up the right half of the screen and can be selected by tabs in the InfoBar. In this section, website pages, databases and articles can be found, sorted by their website. The reader will display a red marker when sites are found or updated as well as for pages that have unfollowed links, The reader will also display icons for disabled and normal datachunks. Like the 4 sections below, normal datachunks will show up in blue, conflicted datachunks will be showed up in yellow, disabled datachunks will be showed in gray, and expired or submitted datachunks will show in a very transparent gray. Game ending datachunks will show in an orange-yellow color. Datachunks can be disabled if the Investigator does not wish to upload it to Orwell. Conflicting datachunks can only link to their counterpart once it has been discovered. Like a normal web browser, the reader can follow links and maintains history with back and forward buttons. However, the reader can only access sites found by Orwell. The Listener By submitting chat handles, aliases, email addresses and phone numbers, the Investigator can monitor emails, chats, phone calls and other communication mediums in real time. The Listener can also transcribe voice calls, in real time, storing the text for future reference or for analysis for potential datachunks The Insider If provided with a unique identifier for a mobile device or computer, Orwell can remotely access computer systems of target persons and browse their files, pictures, browser history, trash, contacts, notes, current and past GPS locations, calendars and others. The Influencer The specialized build of Orwell comes with a major additional feature not even known to the government, called the Influencer. Through this module, narratives and propaganda can be constructed from uploaded data and spread through artificial personas, to discredit or attack Target Persons. It works through three stages: the determining of a thesis, a statement in favor of the Target Person, the uploading of data to create antitheses, narratives opposing the thesis to discredit the person, and finally, the selection and release of an antithesis, aimed at causing the most social and psychological damage to the Target Person. Trivia Orwell is named after an employee in disgust, described Demiurge as "Orwellian"